Monorail is the only form of mass transit that has consistently demonstrated an ability to avoid any congestion impact on surface traffic or other form of movement or transportation activity. The completely separate and independent construction and operation of monorail systems and services can avoid nearly all interface or crossing of monorails with any other form of human activity.
Elevated rail, like elevated freeways and highways, requires such massive support infrastructure that the area beneath those systems cannot usually be considered for other uses. Subway systems avoid surface congestion impact following completion of their construction. However, their extreme cost and construction time limits their positive effect on congestion to very restricted, high-density locations. In addition, it is appropriate to note that while the Los Angeles region has the greatest automobile congestion problem in the United States, the Manhattan area of New York has the premier subway system and yet has the second worst surface roadway automobile congestion problem in the nation. The 2010 Preliminary Environmental Report on a portion of the Los Angeles subway extension from Mid Wilshire LA to West Los Angeles and Santa Monica concedes that the highly touted reductions in vehicle trips and traffic congestion the new subway is expected to produce will be negligible, and will be overcome by urban growth projected over the next ten years; Thus weakening the primary rationale for building the subway.
All transportation systems operating at grade, including buses, contribute to auto traffic congestion by crossing and blocking streets, occupying street and roadway space, or removing it from auto vehicle access. Running rail vehicles in public street rights of way and otherwise intruding in and disrupting automobile and roadway systems is compounded by blockages caused by crossing gates, station stops and the imposition of rail lines in traffic lanes of existing streets and highways. Any transportation system that impinges upon, disrupts or commandeers public street right of way cannot legitimately claim to be providing traffic congestion relief.
Elevated transportation systems can be designed to produce little or no impact on streets or traffic congestion, as long as ground level structures supporting rails or roadbeds fit into existing development and transportation infrastructure patterns. Monorail infrastructure systems are significantly less massive than those required to support elevated rail, bus or magnetic levitation systems, and therefore require less ground level footprint for their supporting structures. Monorail support columns easily fit into street and freeway medians, shoulders and embankments that cannot accommodate the more massive support structures required by elevated rail and bus systems. The diameter of most standard monorail supporting columns or pylons allows monorail systems to be built and located within most major streets without the loss or disruption of traffic lanes or landscaped medians.
Monorail system development and construction produce limited, short-term impacts on street and highway circulation; and virtually no measurable congestion impact from normal system and transportation service operations. Monorails present the only cost-effective, structurally viable alternative for expansion of Oakland Bay and Golden Gate bridge capacities, with high capacity systems adaptable to bridge structures, and separated from auto traffic surfaces and rights of way. Original engineering designs for railway tracks supported within the span structure of the Golden Gate Bridge suggest possible location of much lighter monorail guide ways and vehicles below the bridge’s roadbed and traffic surfaces. A high-capacity commuter monorail system built in freeway medians could seamlessly connect San Jose, Silicon Valley, Oakland and the extended East Bay to San Francisco’s Financial District monorail stations, with only positive impacts on freeway congestion.
Monorails built in medians of East Bay and West Bay freeways, and across the Oakland Bay Bridge, could directly connect 110 miles of commuter express monorail services to the heart of San Francisco’s financial district. The monorails could transport hundreds of thousands of passengers per day between extended suburbs and San Francisco, at speeds of 60-80 miles per hour, passing above all traffic, congestion and delays that characterize driving anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area. The seamless connection between the American Monorail-proposed West Bay freeway monorail and San Francisco International Airport further articulates the potential of monorails to connect and link venues, populations and activity centers into efficient transportation systems capable of transporting hundreds of thousands of passengers among them each day.
As in the suburban areas served by monorail systems, monorail stations, guide ways and related structures can be built in the most densely developed, and heavily used of urban settings. The proposed station locations and guide way routes in San Francisco’s Financial District can provide access to the city’s commercial and employment center without intruding upon, or congesting the neighborhood’s or city’s transportation, pedestrian or commercial environments; while significantly reducing traffic and parking demand in the local and extended financial district.
**Monorails built in medians of East Bay and West Bay freeways, and across the Oakland Bay Bridge, could directly connect 110 miles of commuter express monorail services to the heart of San Francisco’s financial district. The monorails could transport hundreds of thousands of passengers per day between extended suburbs and San Francisco, at speeds of 60-80 miles per hour, passing above all traffic, congestion and delays that characterize driving anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area. The seamless connection between the American Monorail-proposed West Bay freeway monorail and San Francisco International Airport further articulates the potential of monorails to connect and link venues, populations and activity centers into efficient transportation systems capable of transporting hundreds of thousands of passengers among them each day.
As in the suburban areas served by monorail systems, monorail stations, guide ways and related structures can be built in the most densely developed, and heavily used of urban settings. The proposed station locations and guide way routes in San Francisco’s Financial District can provide access to the city’s commercial and employment center without intruding upon, or congesting the neighborhood’s or city’s transportation, pedestrian or commercial environments; while significantly reducing traffic and parking demand in the local and extended financial district.
